


A Challenge

by Valesia



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU Different Professions, F/M, Rivalry, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-06 23:46:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1877013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valesia/pseuds/Valesia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Jane and Loki are both in college and Jane is actively avoiding the arrogant Loki. He finds the situation intolerable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Challenge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starianprincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starianprincess/gifts).



> Hope you like this starianprincess!

The book flew across the room, pages flapping before it dropped to the wood floor of the kitchen. Jane stomped into the kitchen, hands on her hips before clenching and unclenching her fists, mouth set in a firm line.

 

“Wow. Bad day?” Darcy said.

 

Jane’s eyes narrowed.

 

“Ooh! Lemme guess. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Wicked?”

 

“Would you stop calling him that?” She huffed.

 

“Mr. Super Sexy S-”

 

“No!”

 

“Mr. Devilishly delic-”

 

“Darcy!” Jane said.

 

Darcy put her hands up in front of her in surrender. “But I’m right ya?” She waggled her eyebrows and dug into the remaining chocolate chip and mint ice cream.

 

“If you’re referring to that horrible man then yes. That scheming little wretch somehow,” she said, shooting a look at Darcy, “ _somehow_ found out about the wine shop I love and then conned the owner into handing over the last bottle of Rose Muscat that he promised to save for me.”

 

“Of what?”

 

Jane sighed. “It’s a Massandra wine.”

 

“Riiight.”

 

“Dessert wine,” Jane said. “You remember? The one I had been saving as a reward for finishing my last exam.”

 

“Which exam?”

 

“Scandinavian mythology.”

 

Darcy laughed. “You could’ve, you know, got a TLDR version of the class from you-know-who.”

 

Jane gave her the dirtiest look she could muster. As if she would stoop to asking the smug bastard for help. It wasn’t fair that he was from Denmark and knew all the material without even trying. She would have bet anything that he simply picked the major because he could do well in it with the least amount of effort. Everything seemed to come easily for him.

 

“Oookay, maybe not.”

 

“And how did he know about the wine, hm?” She raised an eyebrow, giving Darcy a pointed look.

 

“Psh, no idea.” Darcy shrugged. “The wine shop I may have mentioned in passing, but I said nada about the actual wine.”

 

“Darcy!”

 

“What? He asked, I answered. He IS pretty cute you know.” She raised the small tub of ice cream and tilted her head back to get the last few drops of heaven. “What’s the big deal? Win-win to me.”

 

Jane paced the kitchen, as a way of keeping herself from strangling her best friend. “How is that win-win?”

 

Darcy slid a plate of two cronuts towards Jane, the loud scraping of a ceramic plate on wood counter echoing in the quiet room. “Peace offering?”

 

“Are those?” Jane said, her eyes going wide. “Wait a minute. Where did you get those?”

 

Darcy knew she only had a few seconds before Jane’s quick mind put two and two together. “Okay, okay before you get mad,” she said, spying Jane’s face, “okay, madder. Those are worth twenty bucks a pop. And win-win for you. He said if you wanted the wine back, all you had to do was ask him in person.”

 

Jane made a face of disgust.

 

“Hey if you don’t think Muskrat juice is worth it… At least your stalker is kinda cute.”

 

“Muscat,” she corrected. Jane snatched a cronut before wrapping her scarf around her neck. “We are going to have a long talk about taking bribes when I get back.”

 

“Okay, boss,” Darcy said with a mock salute. “I won’t wait up for you!” she called before Jane slammed the door.

 

* * *

 

 

Jane spied the intricate carvings in the large wooden door before her. Of course, the sly bastard was well off. Karmic justice and all. She grabbed the metal knocker and rapped on the door. She shivered, looking around her, and tugged her grey wool pea coat around her. The warm lights offered by the lampposts broke through the consuming darkness like little a row of pearls. The door opened and Jane jumped back a step, her face snapping up to an angled one.

 

“Wine?” she said, her right palm opened.

 

She grimaced when he smiled. That was never a good sign. “Why, right this way, Jane.” He stepped back and gestured inside the wide-arched doorway.

 

“I came because you said you would hand over the wine if I did. I’m not going in there. I’ll probably never come out alive. Sacrificial offerings to your pagan gods and all I’m sure.”

 

“Are you offering yourself as a virgin sacrifice, Jane?”

 

She scowled at him. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

 

Loki smiled, and Jane was reminded of a panther she had seen once when her father was alive and taken her travelling. It had been beautiful lying so still resting underneath a tree. She had mistaken it for being asleep until a small white-tailed deer nibbled at the grass near it. Powerful muscles flexed, its jaw opened wide, and in the next minute, the deer was dead. Jane took that lesson to heart. Never underestimate even the most beautiful things.

 

“Tsk tsk, Jane. I never figured you for meekness,” he said as she glared. “Also, I never stated I would merely ‘hand over’ the wine as you presumed. I said I would give you the wine. Currently it’s sitting with two glasses by the fireplace.”

 

She frowned, and was weighing the pleasure of such a fine wine with her dislike of being in the same room as him.

 

“Then again, some of the plants would appreciate a glass.”

 

Jane gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

 

He smirked then. “Dare me, Jane.” He took a step closer to her, but she stood her ground. He took another step, and then another until there was hardly any room between them. His eyes danced, and wicked promise lay within them. But there was danger there too. This was a wild tiger, whose spirit could not be caged, and would never be tamed.

 

She pushed him back and turned away from his penetrating eyes. Eyes that seemed to seek out her secrets, her weaknesses, and ways to trap her in his orbit. “No.” She turned to leave and pushed past his arm that had suddenly appeared in her way. Her heart, a staccato rhythm in her chest. Adrenaline coursed through her. Flight or fight.

 

“Such a shame. Perhaps I misjudged you. You, Thor’s beloved, scared as a rabbit, of what, nothing?”

 

She scowled at him. “Ex. And even a rabbit is right to be scared when a fox is near.”

 

“Is that how you see me, Jane? A fox?” Loki said, watching her with those uncanny eyes.

 

“I try not to see you at all,” Jane murmured.

 

“But you can’t help yourself can you? That’s how I noticed. Your efforts to avoid me were excessive and intolerable.”

 

“Maybe in Denmark avoidance equals attraction but here in America, avoidance means disgust.” He drew nearer to her then, challenge in his eyes, arrogance in his posture, trapping her against the doorframe with his arms.

 

He ran his long fingers down the side of her face, his touch as gentle as the wings of a butterfly, but heated her skin until she felt her blood simmering beneath her cheeks. Her eyes closed and she leaned into the palm of his hand.

 

“I think not, Jane,” Loki said, his breath tickling the tiny hairs on her skin. He pulled back then, smirking.

 

She hastily stepped away from him, eyes lowered, face flushed and a torrent of thoughts flowing through her head. 

 

“When you’re ready, the wine will be waiting for you,” he said, as she all but tripped over to get away from him. She realized she understood how the deer felt then. Blindsided.

 

But in the seconds she took to compose herself, she realized, this is what he wanted and expected. She narrowed her eyes at his triumphant smirk. Straightening her back, she slipped past his tall frame into his house and headed for where she thought was the living room.

 

The door closed with a loud click and Jane heard his footsteps behind her. Spying the bottle of wine, she grabbed it, and marched past him for the door.

 

“Fair play, Jane,” he said, simply content to watch her, a calculating look in his eyes.

 

She didn’t look back as she left, cradling the bottle in the crook of her arms. A pyrrhic victory, but she would enjoy it. She knew without a doubt it would not be the last she saw of Loki. But damned if she would let him win so easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
